Category: New Viewpoints

Impact Lab > New Viewpoints
Animals, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Inventions, New Viewpoints

Humming Bird Robot Spy “Ornithopter”

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Next generation war technology

Developed by the company AeroVironment Inc., the miniature spybot looks like a hummingbird complete with flapping wings… The ornithopter can fly into buildings under the control of an operator flying the spybot with the help of a feed from its tiny video camera. The prototype is capable of flying at speeds of up to 18 km/h (11 mph) and weighs 19 grams, which is about the same as an AA battery… The specifications given to the firm by the Pentagon included being able to hover in an 8 km/h wind gust and being able to fly in and out of buildings via a normal door…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Humor, New Viewpoints

IKEA Instructions for Stonehenge

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IKEA in archaeology.

What was the purpose for Stonehenge? Was it a calendar, an observatory, or a sacrificial site? These suggestions by archaeologists assume that it was a completed design instead of a project left half-finished because the assembly instructions were provided by IKEA. Justin Pollard, John Lloyd and Stevyn Colgan composed a cartoon illustrating this explanation…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Entertainment, New Viewpoints

Billboard Swing Set

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Billboards are good for more than advertising.

Architect Didier Faustino made Double Happiness out of an old billboard in New York City:

Double Happiness responds to the society of materialism where individual desires seem to be prevailing over all. This nomad piece of urban furniture allows the reactivation of different public spaces and enables inhabitants to reappropriate fragments of their city…

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Animals, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

Promiscuous Apes Make More Sperm

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Promiscuous ape species have bigger testicles

Chimpanzees produce 200 times more sperm than gorillas, the world’s largest primates, and 14 times more than orangutans, scientists based in Japan reveal.

Promiscuous ape species have bigger testicles, and the latest discovery finally provides evidence that they also produce more sperm.
Scientists previously proposed that chimps have large testicles because several males mate with a single female, and so have to produce more sperm in order to compete.

For their research, published in the American Journal of Primatology, scientists studied chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas from zoos in Japan and Indonesia.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Inventions, New Viewpoints

Get Your Kid a KIDGET

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A multi-touching touch screen device.

Technology and the present generation of kids go hand in hand. No matter how hard you try you cannot take the technological aspect out of a child. Taking advantage of this factor Lim Hojoon, the designer from South Korea, has come up with an educational gadget especially for children.

Kidget, as the name suggests, is a combination of two words – kid and gadget. This kid friendly gadget has various uses. When your child is in a mood to read it takes the form of a storybook. When the mood is to draw and color this wonder gadget turns in to a perfect canvas. Your child can freely give color to all his/her imaginations. Should s/he wish to have some fun, see this device convert into a musical instrument. You too would enjoy doing activities with your loved one using this gadget. This multi-touching touch screen device will definitely prove to be an ideal friend for your budding genius.

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, DIY, Entertainment, Great Videos, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

A 33 Foot Touchscreen Built Using Off-The-Shelf Hardware and Public Domain Software

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWFtF06RFo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

The University of Groningen in the Netherlands made this 32.8 ft. by 9.2 ft. touchscreen interface from six expensive cameras… and some “cheap” infrared emitters, 1000 LEDs, some old computers that were sitting around, and some free software.

The result is a positively enormous curved screen with a resolution of 4900 by 1700 that can track 100 different touches at a time… and that’s just at optimum speeds.  Latency is between 30 and 50 ms.

Anyone up for a game of Pong?

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, New Viewpoints

Book Uses Colored Thread Between Pages To Make Hyperlinks

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Hyperlinks on paper.

Maria Fischer’s “Traumgedanken” book is a collection of “literary, philosophical, psychological and scientifical texts” about dreams. The book uses threads pierced through the pages and affixed to other pages to make physical hyperlinks between ideas.

On five pages there are illustrations made out of thread. Their shape and colour relies on the key words on the opposite page. This way an abstract image of the dream about dreaming is generated…

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Architecture, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, New Viewpoints

The Water-Scraper Habitat

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Visions of water dwellings.

Taking advantage of the 71% of the Earth covered in water, the “Water-Scraper” is a partially submerged, self-contained habitat. A combination of tidal, solar and wind sources generate power for the floating behemoth while garden acreage just above the water line produces food for the structure’s inhabitants.

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Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Economy, Food, Global Warming, Globalism, government, Health & Fitness, Hot Issues, Latest News, Money Talk, New Viewpoints

EPA’s Budget To Be Slashed

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77% of Americans support the EPA

Okay, okay, we get it. House Republicans don’t like the idea of trying to reign in pollution. I mean really don’t like it. Many of them already claimed that climate change wasn’t real on the campaign trail, and said they’d fight climate legislation. Then, the powerful chairman of the House Energy Committee, Fred Upton (R-MI), has already sponsored a bill designed to prevent the EPA from enforcing the Clean Air Act, claiming it would kill jobs and whatnot. Now, House Republicans have released their vaunted plan for massive federal spending cuts. At the top of the list? The EPA.

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Humor, New Viewpoints, Recycling

Phantom of the Floppera

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmoDLyiQYKw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

YouTube user FunToTheHead has created a working organ that uses finely tuned wheezing floppy drives to play rather impressive renditions of music. It’s not easy to sequence for four-note floppy-drive organs, but FunToTheHead has done a rather good job with Toccata and Fugue — a solid choice for any mad-science organ! I love that he’s got the blinkenlights synched with the music…

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.